Except replace the dead control board with fully functional identical control board.

Easier said than done.

There's equipment that can directly read the magnetic patterns directly off the platters to restore the data.

Is there? I've been told over and over again, that this is the work of fantasy TV by many of my professors.

Yea... because the control board is where the data is saved ?

Huh? When did I say that? The control board controls the hard drive, and the various motors. Unless you have the EXACT control board for that exact hard drive, you'll never power that hard drive again.

Huh? When did I say that? The control board controls the hard drive, and the various motors. Unless you have the EXACT control board for that exact hard drive, you'll never power that hard drive again.

Quote yourself:

Once the control board is dead, that's it, there's nothing no one can do with that.

Except there is something someone can do with that, they can replace the board.

There is loads of things people could do to recover data is the board is dead, you think the FBI say "Aww the boards dead, well I guess this guy got away with it"

You think data recovery companies tell their customers "Sorry, although the platters are fine, the board is dead, you just lost everything"

Backtracking will not make you any less wrong

And more to the point, what makes you think replacing the board with an identical model would be difficult? You have to do that with a lot of different components, what happens when an inverter in a laptop screen dies? Ebay the exact part number and buy another one

Is there? I've been told over and over again, that this is the work of fantasy TV by many of my professors.

Huh? When did I say that? The control board controls the hard drive, and the various motors. Unless you have the EXACT control board for that exact hard drive, you'll never power that hard drive again.

That's so far wrong I don't know why anyone would have told you that. You can even transplant the platters into a new drive if the drive dies without any special magic (other than a clean room).

Is there? I've been told over and over again, that this is the work of fantasy TV by many of my professors.

Yes, there is. When I sent my failed western digital drive to a recovery company, they tried replacing the platters but it didn't fix the problem so the drive was returned to me, they did also say they could read the data off the platters themselves at a cost of something like £1,000/hour, now obviously my data wasn't worth that much and I don't have that amount of money lying around, but to secure a prosecution or to save highly sensitive data to a business it probably is worth it.

Also I feel like this is possibly the most retarded thread I've seen in a while.

Yes, there is. When I sent my failed western digital drive to a recovery company, they tried replacing the platters but it didn't fix the problem so the drive was returned to me, they did also say they could read the data off the platters themselves at a cost of something like £1,000/hour, now obviously my data wasn't worth that much and I don't have that amount of money lying around, but to secure a prosecution or to save highly sensitive data to a business it probably is worth it.

Also I feel like this is possibly the most retarded thread I've seen in a while.